BY
Edward Robertson

Global air traffic bounces back from stormy period

International air traffic has set a new world record in October, having been impacted by the tropical storms of September.

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A new record was set in October after September figures were hit by tropical storms

Statistics released by Iata show that demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose 7.2% year on year in October.

Capacity grew by 6.2% while load factor climbed 0.8 percentage points to 80.8%, a new record for the month.

The demand increase was even more favourable when compared with the September figure of 6.6% and which had suffered thanks to the storms across the Caribbean and the southern US.

Iata director general and chief executive Alexandre de Juniac said: “As expected, the recent severe weather in the Americas region had only a temporary impact on the healthy travel demand we have seen this year, and we remain on course for another year of above-trend growth.”

Asia-Pacific airlines led all regions with traffic growth of 10.3%, while demand for European carriers climbed 6.2% in October, slower than the 7.2% year-over-year growth recorded for September.

Middle East carriers experienced a 6.9% rise in demand in October while North American airlines’ traffic climbed 3.7% in October.

Latin American airlines had an 8.7% increase in traffic in October, although this was a slowdown from September growth of 10.7%.

African traffic grew 7.5% year-on-year in October, up from 3.6% in September.